We're on to something good!

I'm writing this blog entry at 2:45 am, and I'm just thrilled! We put Clara to bed tonight at 9pm, and the first time she woke up was 2am--that's certainly a record--5 hours! It's the best stretch of sleep we've had so far. Last Sunday night, we moved Clara into her room (previously she was sleeping in her pack & play in the living room), and we started a bedtime routine with her which includes putting her to bed at about 9pm every night and reading bedtime stories. Previously, Matt would stay up with her until about midnight so that I could get some sleep. Now we are both able to go to bed earlier, her waking times are more predictable, and she's actually sleeping in longer stretches. It's such a relief to get more than 1 -1.5 hours of sleep at a time! I attribute a lot of our success with this to her reaching the two month mark.

Last night we were discussing who was going to take which night shifts. She had been waking up three times a night this week, and I suggested that Matt take two and I would take one since it was the weekend (I take more shifts during the week since he's working). He responded--how about we each just take one? I laughed and asked if Elsie was going to take the third shift! Surprisingly, Clara only woke up twice Friday night so Matt got his wish--another record!

It was a bit painful the first couple of nights we tried this approach. Clara did not want to go to sleep on her own and was used to falling asleep with Matt on the couch. I was also guilty of putting her in bed with me in the morning around 6ish when she would wake so I could get a few more hours of sleep after being up all night. Neither of these was ideal, but seemed to be our only hopes of getting any decent amount of sleep during those first weeks This new plan of having a bedtime and having her sleep on her own is going very well so far (after the first couple of rough nights she's nowgoing to bed without much fussing), and we're are getting a lot more sleep! I just hope it continues...

I also love finally using her room. We spent so much time getting it ready and dreaming of having our baby in her room that it's great it's finally getting some use. I love sitting in the rocker remembering how excited we were when we were painting and talking about our little baby to come. Now she's here and part of the family! And it's also great not to have the diaper genie in the middle of the living room. A little more order has been restored in our lives.=)